Tough, Confident Kittner On Target

Illini Qb 3rd In Nation In Passing Efficiency

September 22, 1999|By Gary Reinmuth, Tribune Staff Writer.

Ron Turner was a wide receiver. Kurt Kittner is a quarterback. Turner's late mother, Vicki, suffered from multiple sclerosis. Kittner's mother does too. Turner knew he needed to recruit a great quarterback two years ago to ignite his offense. This season, Kittner has been the match lighting the flame.

There's a sweet harmony in there somewhere, but nothing as beautiful as the symmetry Kittner displayed Saturday night when he completed 17 of 24 passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns.

Take it from Louisville. Kittner still has a knack for hitting his target.

"I remember he came running in the house one day when he was 9 years old, holding a football in his hand," his mother, Lee Trantin, said. "He said, `You know what, mom? Someday I'm going to be a quarterback.' "

Some people are amazed at what Kittner has been doing for the Illinois football team this season: Nine touchdown passes, no interceptions, third in the nation in passing efficiency. Didn't Kittner just barely beat out senior Kirk Johnson for the starting job? Didn't Johnson clearly outplay him in the late August scrimmage at Rantoul High School?

Trantin isn't surprised.

Life has been tackling her son for losses, big and small, all his life. She has watched him turn every potential sack into a huge gain.

Kittner was 3 when she was diagnosed.

"I'm trying to get it into remission," she said. "I'm inconvenienced by it. Kurt has helped me with IVs sometimes. I had one night where he picked me up off the kitchen floor. I think that and the childhood he had made him a little tougher. There were a lot of things we couldn't afford. We learned to work for them."

Kittner was in kindergarten when his parents divorced.

"I haven't talked to my dad (George) in a long time," Kittner said quietly. "He and I are like total opposites. My dad was never around. We don't have a good relationship. My mom, I don't think she ever missed a game. She had three boys (Eric, Kurt and Matt) and three games to be at. My mom is more like one of my best friends. She pretty much gave up her whole life for us. She's happy if we're happy."

The thing that made Kittner happiest was playing football.

The first thing his coaches would notice was how big and strong he was for his age, so they automatically thought "lineman." Kittner hated playing the line.

"I don't know why, but I've always enjoyed watching other players tearing their hair out when they couldn't catch you," he said.

After his 7th grade season in the Schaumburg Athletic Association, Kittner just quit.

The next year his mother signed him up anyway and didn't tell him.

"I paid a partial (fee)," she recalls. "I took him out to the field and you could just see his finger twitching. The coach said `What position do you want to play?' Kurt said `quarterback.' The coach said `fine.' The team that year was kind of a mess. Kurt always had the confidence."

Things have worked out pretty much the way he envisioned them ever since.

Under the tutelage of coach Tom Cerasani and offensive coordinator Mark Steger, brother of former Illini quarterback Kurt Steger, Kittner passed for 1,891 yards and 20 touchdowns his junior year at Schaumburg High.

The following July he signed with Illinois.

"I didn't want to wait till after my senior season because I might get hurt," he says. "Plus, if a school didn't want me already I didn't want them. I wanted to stay in the Midwest to be close to home, but also be far enough away so that my mom couldn't drive in, knock on my door and say `I just happened to be in the neighborhood.' "

In the fourth game of the season against Palatine, Kittner tore a tendon in the thumb of his throwing hand--on a face mask--while going in for a touchdown.

"When a quarterback tears a tendon on his throwing hand, how many schools are still going to offer (a scholarship)?" he says. "I saw the whole knuckle pop out. I could bend my thumb back to my wrist. I didn't know if I'd ever play again."

But after being outfitted with a cast, Kittner did exactly that--finishing out the season at safety.

Last year, Kittner was tested again. After making his collegiate debut against Middle Tennessee State and hitting 9 of 27 passes in a backup role versus Louisville, Kittner became the first true freshman to start at quarterback for Illinois in 52 years. Beginning with Iowa, Kittner started five consecutive games before losing his job to Johnson in a loss to Penn State and a victory over Indiana.

"I was upset," says Kittner. "No one wants to be benched. But I wasn't preparing well, doing the things I was supposed to be doing."

Kittner returned to play against Michigan State in the season finale, going just 3 of 10 for 52 yards. In Turner's view, that day was "huge for Kurt.